Xbox Live on its way for Middle East, more details to be announced at E3

Microsoft has announced that it plans to launch its Xbox Live online gaming service and portal in the Middle East within the next twelve months.

Speaking at the DCC conference in Fujairah today, Julian Woods, MEA regional director for Retail Sales & Marketing (RSM) said that the software giant has definite plans for Xbox Live in the region, but did not reveal a set timescale. The company plans to announce more concrete plans at the E3 show in the US next month.

Microsoft is aiming to become the number one console in the Middle East, Woods said.

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Woods also said that Microsoft intends to work with rival Sony to promote and evangelize the Middle East region to third party games developers, to help increase their focus on the region. Woods pointed out that there is a big market for games in the region, citing evidence such as sales of 200,000 units of Call of Duty: Black Ops in the first six months of sales, but that a lot of games developers and publishers were not aware of the potential in the market.

"We have a very big ambition across the Middle East to be the number one console, and we will invest in getting there," Woods said. "We are going to spend a bit more time working with distributors, and with Sony, to really evangelize the region. There are some big volumes in the Middle East, but at the corporate headquarters of some our third party publishers, I don’t think they have a real depth of information or insight into the region."

No news yet of Microsoft expanding to the Middle East. Sony Playstation, with it's horrible limitations, still remains to go-to console in the Middle East. Slowly losing hope in humanity AND the brains of certain companies who lay idly by, losing potential sales.